GOSH Charity opens new family accommodation

9 Aug 2022, 3 p.m.

A photo of the bedrooms in the new Powis Place Accommodation, showing a double bed, a bright window, a yellow chair and small desk.

Just ninety seconds from GOSH are two new family accommodation complexes.

These new facilities provide parents and carers of one of our patients with a free place to stay, just moments away from their child's bedside.

GOSH Charity funds new accommodation

GOSH Charity's partners, Royal Bank of Canada and McColl’s Retail Group, have each raised an incredible £1 million to fund the new accommodation through their employees and customers.

These facilities are designed to cater to the needs of families whose children require urgent and specialist care, so priority for places in the new accommodation will be for parents or carers with children in intensive care units, as they can’t stay on the ward with their child.

Hear from GOSH Mum Tahmineh in this film. She shares how important family accommodation was for her family whilst her son, Idris, was undergoing treatment at GOSH.

The family-focused facilities

Two 18th century townhouses on Powis Place have been transformed into modern, comfortable facilities for 40 people, just ninety seconds away from our hospital.

These accommodations are known as Royal Bank of Canada House and McColl’s House, in honour of the fundraising efforts of each organisation. They feature:

  • bedrooms of various sizes
  • kitchen facilities
  • a quiet room
  • sitting rooms
  • laundry and dining areas.

This will provide our families a place to relax and rest away from the busy hospital setting.

My team and I look after some of the most seriously ill children in the hospital and, like the rest of our colleagues, deliver family-centred care which is crucial for families with children being treated in intensive care.

Children at GOSH don’t just come from London and the South-East, they travel from the whole of the UK, as well as further afield. This means their parents and carers need a space to sleep and recharge, but most of all to be near their child so they can be at their bedside whenever needed – in intensive care, this can sometimes be very quickly, day or night, so having Royal Bank of Canada House and McColl’s House a stone’s throw away from ICU will make an immeasurable difference.

Dr Joe Brierley, Consultant in Paediatric and Neo-natal Intensive Care at Great Ormond Street Hospital

The building and renovation of family accommodation close to the hospital is one of GOSH Charity’s key funding areas, and through the generous support of partners and donors who give to the charity, we can continue to improve services offered to families during what is often a challenging and daunting time.

As our hospital treats seriously ill children from right across the UK, family accommodation is crucial for those families travelling from outside London with a child in need of life-changing care.

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